In April, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced a decision not to list the bistate, Mono Basin sage grouse as threatened and thus in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Private, voluntary agreements and practices among ranchers to conserve land and other improvements in the bird's habitat have helped stabilize its population along the Sierra Nevada's eastern front. Found only in California and Nevada, the bird is distinct from the greater sage grouse species.

"The threats are no longer of a magnitude that would require listing," Mary Grim, regional sage grouse coordinator for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), told the Associated Press.